1. Technical Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a projector type vehicle light including a shade that can be rotated between a low-beam position and a high-beam position by a solenoid. In particular, the presently disclosed subject matter relates to a projector type vehicle headlight that can have a decreased total weight and prevent the strength insufficiency of a rotational shaft when the lamp unit is allowed to be rotated around the rotational shaft extending in a vertical direction of the projector type vehicle headlight.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various projector type vehicle headlights are known that include a light source, a reflector configured to reflect light from the light source, a shade configured to shield part of the light received from the reflector, and a projection lens configured to project light that is not shielded by the shade. Examples of this type of vehicle headlights include those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 (corresponding to FIGS. 1 and 4 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-213938).
In the description of the present application, the directions for describing a light or headlight (front and rear, left and right, and up and down directions) are defined based on the state where the light is installed in a normal vehicle unless otherwise specifically defined.
The projector type vehicle headlight as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes, in addition to the above basic components, a shade rotational shaft extending in a horizontal direction (left-to-right direction) of the headlight, a base member configured to support the shade around the shade rotational shaft so that the shade can rotate freely, a solenoid configured to rotate the shade between a low-beam position and a high-beam position, and a crank shaft for connecting the solenoid with the shade for driving and rotating of the shade.
In this structure, when the solenoid is turned off, the shade is disposed at the low-beam position to shield part of light from the reflector, thereby forming a low-beam light distribution pattern.
When the solenoid is turned on, the plunger of the solenoid is retracted to rotate the crank shaft connected thereto. Then, the rotated crank shaft can move the shade.
As a result, the shade is allowed to be disposed at the high-beam position to form a high-beam light distribution pattern.
When the solenoid is disposed so that the moving direction of the plunger can be aligned with the front-to-rear direction, the size of the vehicle headlight in the front-to-rear direction can be relatively large. However, in this structure, the solenoid can be disposed so that the moving direction of the plunger can be aligned with the horizontal direction (left-to-right or side to side direction) of the projector type vehicle headlight, and therefore, the size of the vehicle headlight in the front-to-rear direction can be relatively smaller than when the plunger moving direction is aligned in the front to rear direction.
It should be noted that there is no disclosure about what supports the solenoid and what holds the projection lens in the vehicle headlight of FIGS. 1 and 2.
On the other hand, in the projector type vehicle headlight in FIGS. 3 and 4 (corresponding to FIGS. 1 and 3 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-27768), the solenoid is supported by a holder which also holds the projection lens.
It should be noted that there is no disclosure about what material the holder for supporting the solenoid and holding the projection lens is made of.
When the holder of the projector type vehicle headlight in FIGS. 3 and 4 is made of a metal material, the entire weight of the headlight is increased.
When the holder of the projector type vehicle headlight in FIGS. 3 and 4 is made of a resin material, the headlight can lighten as a whole.
However, when the holder includes a rotational shaft extending vertically in the headlight and a lamp unit containing the light source, reflector, holder, shade, projection lens and the like connected to one another is allowed to rotate around the rotational shaft, the strength of the rotational shaft may be decreased.